What if (The F Word)
starring Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Megan Park, Adam Driver, Mackenzie Davis and Rafe Spall
written by Elan Mastai
directed by Michael Dowse
Rating: ♦♦♦◊◊
Based on the play “Toothpaste and Cigars” by T.J. Dawe and Michael Rinaldi, The F Word is a love comedy filmed in Toronto. What I really liked about it is that it is set in Toronto, too. It’s not TO pretending to be an American city. It really is Toronto. I hesitated to rent the DVD because I could see from the pictures on the box that it was a Daniel Radcliffe movie and I have mixed feelings about him as an actor and an English-speaker. But I could also tell that it was a romantic comedy, which is my favorite kind of film, and I was in the mood to watch something other than all other junk in the shop. In the end I am glad I watched it.
Wallace (Radcliffe) is a medical school dropout who meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan) at a party. Chantry is alone at the party although she actually does have a boyfriend, Ben (Rafe Spall). She always seems to be abroad socially without her boyfriend, making me wonder if the boyfriend wasn’t an imaginary friend used parry unwanted advances from men in general. Basically, Wallace and Chantry fall in love with each other, but he has a broken heart from a previous relationship, and she won’t cheat on her (real) boyfriend, even though they never seem to be together. Wallace is cynical while Chantry is romantic. Their problem is that age-old conundrum: can men and women be just friends without sex spoiling it?
Doesn’t Daniel Radcliffe ever shave? Come on, man! If you can’t grow a proper beard then spare us all by shaving that peach fuzz, why don’t you! Zoe Kazan is really cute. She’s the kind of girl who ought to be your first girlfriend in junior high school - a long-haired, virginal girl next door who loves horses, Elvis and Jesus. Smart and humble.
In fairy tales love inspires you to be noble and courageous, but in real life love is just an all-purpose excuse for selfish behavior. You can lie and cheat and hurt people and it’s all okay because you’re in love.
I hate it when the DVD box, or movie posters feature a still shot that is supposed to represent the film but which actually does not appear in the finished movie. It’s not that the picture was not taken and is faked, it’s just that it’s a shot that fell on the film editor’s cutting room floor but was retained as advertising. It’s a fairly common ploy that you will notice if you pay attention. The most famous example I know of is from Saturday Night Fever with the iconic image of John Travolta standing in his open-necked white disco suit with one leg cocked and one arm extended with an upward pointing finger. That shot never appeared in the finished movie. I know, because I watched it. Well, the same occurs in The F Word. The picture on the DVD box shows Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan together on a sofa, but that image does not exist in the finished film. Movie directors, producers and editors must think the audience are morons. Well, mostly we are, I guess.